Thursday, December 29, 2005

More Identity Crisis Boards

Here is another segment of my board for Danny Phantom: Identity Crisis. The Techno-ghost: Technus, takes over the Fenton-RV and goes flying through the city. If you ever catch the episode on TV, you'll notice some of this was cut. Mostly due to time. Again I just left out the dialog and screen direction to save on space.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Wolverine vs Hulk

After reading the Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk comic that hit stores yesterday, I got in a discussion with Hulk fan #1, Ray Angrum over who would actually win in a fight. Now if Marvel writers would quit treating Wolvie like a wimp and start writing him for REAL there would be no contest! Here's a drawing I did for Ray to illustrate my point. (By the way that comic kicks ass and you should all buy it!)

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Phantom Storyboards

Here is a small segment from the storyboard I did for the Danny Phantom episode: "Identity Crisis". It's hard to post storyboards on a blog due to space considerations so I compiled a few sequential pannels but I left out all the dialogue, direction, and animation notes. The story, involves Danny splitting himself into two beings. One: an over the top super hero, and the other a fun-loving slacker, (hence the segment that goes split screen showing both of them.) I like to draw my boards as clean as possible. Aside from being fun to draw, it helps the overseas animation look as good as it can. This was boarded in November of 2004 and was one of my earlier attempts at boarding. I've learned a lot since then, mainly due to the tutelage of Butch Hartman, and will post some of my better boards once the shows have aired. Let me know if it's too hard to read the pages in this format, and I'll try to come up with something better, or at least include the dialogue.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

The Final Showdown!

I'm hoping to someday write and direct a live-action movie of the battle between Big Mac and Hamburgler. Right now I'd like to cast Sir Anthony Hopkins as the Hamburgler, Wilford Brimley as Big Mac, and of course Mayor McCheese as himself. I'll probably introduce a female love interest: McLean Deluxe, who is a brilliant scientist and works for the FBI. I'll just cast some flavor-of-the-month teen pop star for that role.

My early plot idea is that Big Mac, (who is haunted by the death of his parents) quits the force when his partner, (McDLT, who has one day left to retire,) is eaten in the line of duty by Hamburgler. Big Mac decides to play by his own rules to bring justice to the Hamburgler. Hamburgler's gang, The Fri Guys, (played by Flavor Flav and Gary Oldman) kidnaps McLean Deluxe and brings her in just as Big Mac is about to kill Hamburgler. In order to save her, Big Mac has to sacrifice one of his precious all-beef patties to the maniacal Hamburgler. Little does Hamburgler know that Big Mac anticipated all of this and secretly replaced the patty with one tainted with Mad Cow disease. Hamburgler's head explodes and Big Mac says some cool catch phrase, like "You want CHEESE with that?" Then he and McLean Deluxe kill the Fri Guys, (cause she's no damsel in distress). Then Mayor McCheese tries to get Big Mac back on the force to stop some other menace, (probably Captain Crook and the evil 4-armed Grimace teamed -up). As they argue the credits start to roll with a hip remake of the Big Mac song.

I'll post more drawings and work out the story idea later. Although it's pretty tight already.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Ghost King

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Mr. Freeze

I love Arnold as Mr Freeze. How can people not enjoy seeing him portray a brilliant scientist? The sight of him clunking around in that suit while spouting of countless "cold" puns is the best thing in all those movies hands down. These doodles were all done on my new Wacom 21UX Cintiq Tablet. I used Alais Sketchbook Pro which is an awesome program!! The most user friendly program on the market as far as I'm concerned. This drawing is for you Shannon. Now you owe me a Yaddle drawing. I'll check your blog for it!

More Seaweed Images

Thursday, December 01, 2005

My Dad's Art

My dad, Luke Balistreri, is an amazing artist. Here are a couple of his pieces I'm lucky enough to have hanging in my house. My dad was an art professor at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh for over 40 years until recently retiring. I owe a lot to his inspiration and teaching. Thanks Dad!

About Me

Hi! I'm currently a storyboard artist and character designer at Disney TV working on Wander Over Yonder! I just finished a 6 year run as a story artist at DreamWorks were I boarded on How To Train Your Dragon among other movies. I'm an Emmy Award winner for my character designs on "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends". I've worked as a storyboard artist and character designer at Nickelodeon on Danny Phantom, and a character designer at Disney TV for too many projects to list. I've been nominated for 7 Annie Awards and have recently self published my first graphic novel: "Seaweed, and the Cure for Mildew." All work is is a copyright of me unless it's for some studio I'm working for.
Seaweed is also available at these Amazing Comic Shops: